#cable also used to be more common and I think it should be more common yet again

[transingthoseformers]

the tf fanfiction learning curve for me was "... what the fuck is a glossa"

and also for some reason thinking that a spike was like. spike shaped. pointy. and not jsut a robot penis

Isn't glossa greek for tongue??

On the spike thing, from my adventures in fanfiction, I think (?) spikes did start out more generally spike shaped, and there's been a general drift to them being more directly phallic

[cyberapid]

Earthspark Bumblebee x Cybertronian Reader

Work Jitters

No gendered terms are used for the reader. There’s gonna be another part as soon as I stop fucking around.

I’ve also got two more chapters for my Mom 2 that I’ll post when I stop fucking around again

:•)

•-•-•

The laughter of the human Malto’s children rings through your audials as the tallest twin slips over the mud that Mo had unexpectedly thrown under them— just as you had instructed her.

Much to Thrash’s annoyance and Twitch’s delight as she quickly jumps over the mudslide taking the lead in their relay race.

It's common for larger bots to have slower and clunker reactions, especially one so young and inexperienced. Nothing of concerning note, not yet at least, you think to yourself but noting it down doesn't hurt for later.

“That's not fair! I thought they weren’t a part of the race,” Thrash’s complaints bring you from any thoughts that knock around your processor. He's now at least five feet behind his sister who leaps over a stray log left in their path then flips over completely before landing on her pedes and continuing on.

Looking down at the screen attached to your arm plate, wirelessly connected to the bots allowing you to monitor their function. You see that the cables in her pedes and struts strain and her vents are struggling to keep up with her, so she’s quickly overheating.

Though amused by their antics, you reprimand the bot, “Slow down, Twitch. Remember this is a race in name only, I just needed data on your physical state…..” Your warning is waved off as she continues her rate.

Thrash is quick on her tail, also pushing himself to an unnecessary degree.

Pulling yourself up to your peds allows you to see them run further down the open plains of the enclosed farm, spooking any poor animal in their way, trekking towards the makeshift ending ribbon that's being held by a fence post and Robby. Who looks nervous by his sibling’s quick approach. Agitation creeps its way through your processor as you finally shout towards the terrans, “Twitch, Thrash that's enough!”

Twitch is the first to skid to a stop at your serious tone and look back towards you but her brother takes her pause as his chance to continue and overtake with a triumphant yell, but his excitement is short lived before he’s stumbling over his sisters stuck out pede and falling flat onto his face plate with an audible clattering.

“Sorry!” Twitch is fluttering towards you with her servos cupped, held over her chest plate, and pedes no longer touching the ground. Leaving her brother reeling, dramatically checking over his enstril, dermas, and dentas to see if everything is still placed where it should be. “We were just-”

“Pushing yourself too far. You're young and haven't been training long, give yourself time.” You place your servo on her slumped arm and crouch down to be face to face with the young Terran.

Your intake halts at the sudden voice of a familiar mech, “Actually, ‘haven’t been training at all' is more accurate.” Bumblebees vents sound with a familiar annoyance, something he's been expressing far more than often recently. Twitch sighs loud and far too dramatic at Bumblebee’s approach, she then turns to you with pleading optics.

“We are training! You’ve got us running and dodging things, training! See,” she turns to a less than impressed Bumblebee who turns to you, equally pleading optics making you roll your optics at their antics.

“I'm not here to train you, nor am I qualified. I'm a medic and only meant to keep you healthy and to learn more of your biology,” you motion towards Bumblebee with your free servo while the other stays placed on the young Terrans shoulder plating, “He’s here to train you. Bumblebee has experience that far surpasses mine. He’s one of the best scouts I’ve had the pleasure of meeting,” a flush blue covers his faceplating at your compliment which goes unnoticed by you but the human children catch it, stifling their laughs as a glare from the yellow scout is shot towards them.

The twins groan loudly and the tallest of them flops onto his back, impact causing mud to splatter over the whole group. Any laughter the humans might still have had quickly dies as their clothing and hair is abruptly covered in mud. Mo being the first to react, eye wide and mouth agape, “Thrash!! Moms gonna kill us,” she turns to her older brother who looks more exasperated than shocked.

“She’s gonna kill Thrash,”

“Kill?” The Terran comes to his pedes quicker than any bot or human has seen so far, terror fills his face and spark at the notion

“A metaphor, not literal. You will live Thrash,” a servo is placed on his shoulder, in the hopes of calming the mech down.

He vents loudly, leaning his helm on your shoulder and slumps, “I thought I was a goner, Teach,” you can’t help the smile that creeps over your facial plating at his theatrics, looking down you transform your arm into a scanner before the blue light goes over both Terrans registering current physical data into your data.

“Thankfully you live another day, thank primus. Meaning you get to have an even better day tomorrow, with Bee, training” the groans coming from the twins swiftly kills the smile that was creeping up Bumblebees dermas.

[ishomieokay]

Hi! (Big rant I'm sry, I am such a yapper)

What do you think of homelander x starlight ?

For me atleast, I think it's a missed opportunity to develop both of their characters. They have so much parallels going on. I wouldn't say I wanted a full blown romance in s3, but more of a confusion about who is really is the enemy from starlight's side- since homelander is the biggest victim of Vought . And from homelander's side, every women in his life except for maeve have somehow used and taken advantage of him, starlight is the last person who would do that ! He would be really confused that she isn't doing that. She also never knew his horrid past that too.

I don't think homelander is a character who could really be redeemed, he is so long gone for that. But their fake dating arc could have opened so many doors for both of their character development.

I knw I am being delusional enough to think that he is very much obsessed with starlight in s4 as much as he is obsessed with butcher. Like she is his nemesis who stood up against him for godsake idk why the show has watered down her purpose to petty rival with firecracker. Eric kripke is so bad at writing the show Lord 😭✋

Yes, she was watered down without a doubt. And again and again, Billy is given an importance he doesn't really deserve. The whole nemesis thing he has going on with Homelander makes no fucking sense to me. Ryan has no reason to care that much about Butcher. Beyond the fact that Butcher is relentlessly trying to fuck him over, Homelander has no reason to be so obsessed with him either. Narratively speaking, Starlight should be his nemesis, not Butcher.

I actually am such a BIG FAN of Starlander. Weakness by RovingOtter is an amazing fic about them that honestly changed my brain chemestry. Not to mention it's the main reason why I like Homelander so much.

I realize this is an unpopular opinion in the fandom, but I don't think the issue is so much that Homelander is past redemption. It's just that the writers don't want that to happen. The narrative is not going there, even thought THERE ARE elements that would allow it to happen. For example, I don't see Homelander becoming a hero in any capacity, but after all the abuse he was subjected to by humans, he could have easily fallen in a more morally gray area a la Magneto. The writers are just not interested in exploring that because they are all about politics (which I do believe was a direct result of the US elections) and to get their message across Homelander needs to be an irredeemable Big Bad. If they redeemed fucking A-Train and even made Hughie forgive him after *killing Robin and laughing about it*, everyone gets a pass in my opinion though.

Also, it's about the times. You'd find that the main reason why many people don't want Homelander to be redeemed is that he is a rapist. Nowadays that's just unacceptable. Believe or not, back in the 2000s it was something forgivable and sometimes even expected in certain genres (I'm looking at you yaoi). Talking about Western media, I think the most obvious example of this is Spike trying to rape Buffy, his love interest, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That wouldn't fly today, lol.

The dubiously consensual (or just uh, not consensual) sex scene or attempted rape between the main couple was also a super common trope in Soap Operas back in the day. Don't mind me I'm Latin American and for a long time I didn't have cable.

Anyway, I'm rambling. My point is Homelander is never going to be redeemed in canon, but as far as fanfiction goes, who cares? It's fiction, and you can do whatever you want with fictional characters. The world is your playground!

Homelander does have some parallels with Starlight, but tbh, that's not really the reason why I ship them. He actually has much more parallels with Kimiko (which is also an amazing ship in my opinion, and it really doesn't get the recognition it deserves!). He also has parallels with Butcher, with Soldier Boy, and even with Frenchie. So that's not really what I look at when shipping.

I think Starlight is the only character who could potentially see anything good or worth saving in Homelander, and just that makes their relationship very interesting to me. The fact that they are archenemies (or they would be, if the show made any sense), is the cherry on top. We love some good enemies-to-lovers here!

[thevioletjones]

Listen, the DNC fucking nailed that convention so hard, I'm positive we're gonna win.

The party platform they laid out is immaculate. The stark contrast in messaging from that of the party of loveless, bigoted, weirdo, grifter, ghouls couldn't be more plain.

Somehow, in just 4 days, the Dems have officially become the party of family values, in addition to being the party of equality and inclusivity. It's actually surreal to those of us old enough to have slogged our way through many contentious election cycles and decades of hypocrytical myopic bullshit foisted upon us by old-fashioned post-Reagan conservatives.

The selection of Tim Walz as VP turned out to be masterful. Next to him, JD Vance looks even more pathetic and stupid than he already did. The men on the republican ticket are fundamentally incapable of acting like the informed, caring adults on the historic democratic ticket.

I'm disappointed in the youth on social media as usual. As an elder millennial progressive, I have always been further left than the tickets I've voted for and the administrations I've supported. Even my favorite politicians have done things I don't like or agree with. But that's the way it is. It's something we as voters and citizens do not have full control over and never will.

I believe in a free Palestine and I in no way condone the US involvement in supplying Israel with weapons in an unjust war. I also am not a fan of the barely disguised antisemitism that's permeating that cause, and I'm smart enough to know that the entirety of the conflict is much more complex than the last year's news cycle. You can seek out documentaries by credible news sources (like the excellent Vice News program previously aired on HBO and other cable channels) that detail bothe the history of Israel, the history of Palestinian struggles, and the history of the US relationship with Israel, and what that territory means to the different religious factions that want it for themselves (and how sects of Christianity have been indoctrinated into the cause of gaining it for themselves).

The thing is that this election isn't about that relationship or that conflict. It's not about anyone else's country. It's about ours.

I'm American, but I grew up in Venezuela. They just had a big election there that resulted in a steal from a dictator-like unpopular president. But unlike ee did with Trump the first time he lost, they can't actually get his ass out of the presidential palace. Chavez and Maduro have ruined that country with the same anti-democratic tactics that Trump would love to employ and pushed millions of citizens to emigrate from the country.

None of that is about the US either.

My point being, every country on this planet has it's own problems that for better or for worse, we have to largely leave in the hands of the citizens of those nations to resolve.

This is your opportunity to continue the slow correction of the path we've been on in America since Clinton and Obama. It's a slow march towards progress that keeps getting stymied and dragged back, then pushed a little bit forward again. These moderate liberals are the only vote we have that will ever possibly lead to a truly progressive hero and champion. You know, most likely someone in one of our generations.

Millenials and Gen Z have a lot in common, but as the older of the two, I'm telling you, only time and experience will prove to you that you can't have everything in one candidate or even an entire party, and wasting your ability to actually make a difference for noble ideals that won't make an actual difference to those lives you think you're trying to save is illogical.

Israel will not stop bombing Gaza because you sat out of a US election, or because you protested the DNC, or protest voted 3rd party.

Until the system is overhauled, there is no point in 3rd party voting. Of course we should have more than 2 options. We don't.

Anyway....... I am joyful this week.

I still can't believe Grandpa Joe actually got pushed out of the nomination. They are taking this swift shift to Kamala Harris and running Sha'Carri Richardson fast with it.

Get on board.

It's nice not to feel doomed all the time. I don't even care if it's partially an illusion. I know the alternative is a living nightmare that needs to end.

[snapscube]

You've probably gotten this question before but I don't know how I'd go looking for it so:

I know you're an expert on video capturing (and as a side note I always think your infodumps on the subject are really interesting, please feel free to use this ask as an excuse to give us more of your wisdom), so what would be your recommendation for a low to medium end capture card?

I've been interested in recording my VHS tapes into a digital format and I also want to try capturing gameplay on my Switch. I know about various devices from AverMedia and Elgato but I don't really know how to gauge which I should pick.

Elgato HD60X or HD60 S+ are definitely the way to go for game capture.

As for VHS capture, you're gonna need some extra equipment on top of a capture card. I've never done this exactly before so take my guidance on this front with a grain of salt, but if you're going for budget options and especially ease of use, I'd say just research "[analogue cable type] to HDMI converter" on your online store of choice. If I had to make an assumption you're going to want to look at composite converters, as those are generally the most common analogue cables lying around with pre-digital devices (they're the yellow, red, and white ones). At that point, it would hopefully be as simple as plugging your video player into the converter, then plugging that into a capture card. Again, this is purely in an "ease of use" scenario, I can't promise that would get you the best capture quality but if you're mainly looking for preservation then I assume this method would serve you well.

I'd encourage you to maybe look at some YouTube videos about VHS to digital conversion though and see if some who are more familiar with the needs of the format know anything better than I do!

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 03

You know, I hate to say it, but this show's been pretty friggin' boring so far. I mean, the animation's excellent, and the character designs are really top-notch, but there's these long stretches where nothing actually happens. The dull parts are probably intended to make the robot battles more exciting, but Shinji kind of sucks at fighting, and this whole show seems designed to make me feel guilty about his predicament, so it's hard to enjoy the action, you know?

This one opens with Shinji doing some target practice with his Eva. Ritsuko talks him through the drills, reviewing the technical details of the unit. For example, that cable coming out of its back is a power line, because their battery technology sucks in this world. If the cable gets cut, the Eva has 5 minutes of battery life before it shuts down.

Shinji just sort of exists through these drills like he's in a trance. Ritsuko observes that he seems to go through life just doing whatever he's told.

Misato got him a cell phone when he moved in with her, and she expected him to use it a lot when he started at his new school here in Tokyo-3, but she hasn't heard it ring even once, and she suspects that he has no friends.

The two women consider the Hedgehog's dilemma: the notion that hedgehogs have trouble socializing with one another, because the closer they get the more likely that they'll hurt each other with their quills. Pretty sure that's not actually how hedgehogs work, and I'm pretty sure that's not Shinji's problem.

So far, all I really know about Shinji is that he doesn't particularly like himself very much, and he's adapted to his life in such a way where he just passively accepts everything that happens to him. I'm pretty sure this has a lot to do with the way his dad just sort of glares at him instead of interacting with him like a normal human parent.

I suppose, in theory, Shinji could find some common ground with Rei Ayanami, the other Eva pilot, but he just stares at her while she stares out the window. This is what I mean when I say this show is getting boring. Everyone just sort of keeps restating the premise. The world's in danger from these Angels, the Evas are the only thing that can stop them, and Rei and Shinji are the only ones who can pilot the Evas, so they're desperately needed, but they're also completely distant and isolated from the rest of society. This seems like a really major problem that someone should try to solve, but we're on Episode 3 and everyone just keeps staring at this mess waiting for it to clean itself up.

Let's talk about Shinji's school, because apparently that's incredibly fascinating. Yes, I sure am interested in school. Just the other day I was thinking to myself that there aren't enough animes about schools. They should make... a thousand of them, all set in schools, and everyone could wear the same clothes, even the ones that take place in the future, when you'd expect them to have come up with new social customs. Argh, fuck this.

After the battle in episodes 1 and 2, a lot of people just moved out of Tokyo-3, so it looks like the classes are nearly deserted, except there's a packed house once the classes actually begin. The teacher just happens to give a lesson on the backstory of this world. In 1999 a meteor hit Antarctica, setting off disasters and climate changes that wiped out half the human population. He doesn't get into the Angels, although if I understand correctly, the last one showed up 15 years prior to the start of this show, and the second one showed up in Episode 1. So maybe there's not much to tell.

Anyway, Shinji gets a text message on his laptop asking him to respond to rumors about him being the Eva pilot who saved the city three weeks ago. He says he is the pilot, and the whole class starts asking him questions, ignoring the teacher completely. Everyone thinks Shinji is pretty cool, even though he can't actually tell them anything about his pilot work, and he just sort of murmurs all of his dialogue like a drugged kitten.

Well, one kid doesn't like Shinji, because his sister was crushed by falling debris during the attack, and she's been hospitalized ever since. He blames the Eva pilot for fighting the Angel inside the city, and now that he knows it's Shinji, he punches the shit out of him. Shinji mutters that he didn't pilot the Eva by choice, so the kid punches him again.

Then Rei stands over him like the spectre of death and informs him that they got an emergency call. She says she's going to report for duty, but this is the last time we see her this whole episode. I'm pretty sure Rei does something in this show, but I don't understand why it's taking this long to get to that.

It's another angel and... wow. This is a serious downgrade from the last one. NERV mobilizes the Eva, which seems kind of obvious since that's literally the only thing that works. Apparently this is the fourth Angel, so the third must have been the one from Episode 1 three weeks ago, and the second must have been the one they talked about from 2000.

Misato remarks that NERV's commander, Gendo Ikari, is away, but what difference does it make? All he did the last time was stare at the monitor and smirk occasionally. I think they can manage without him.

Shinji wonders why he's still doing this when his dad's not around to see it. I get that characters don't always understand their own motivations. They're not always honest with themselves, or they act impulsively, or whatever. But I feel like if you put on a leotard to sit in the cockpit of a robot about to do battle against a giant monster, you ought to have some vague idea of why you're doing it.

Anyway, Tokyo-3 goes into battle-station mode, and Shinji engages the Angel, and... immediately goes to pieces. The Angel kicks his ass and severs his power cable, so now he's only got five minutes left before the Eva shuts off completely.

Shinji continues to take a beating, and eventually falls near his two classmates, who snuck out of the bomb shelter to see the battle. The one of the left is fascinated by this Angel/NERV conflict, and the one of the right is the kid who beat Shinji up earlier. Seeing them makes Shinji freeze up, which is impressive because I thought he was already freezing up earlier in the battle. What, is he double-freezed up now? How much does this Angel suck that it still hasn't managed to kill him?

I guess he sort of pulls it together long enough to keep the monster busy while Misato orders the hatch open so the other kids can get inside the robot with him for safety. Ritsuko objects to this, but Misato seems to be in charge, so she gets her way.

Apparently just having passengers on board the Eva can screw up its delicate interaction with the pilot, so this further disrupts Shinji's ability to defend himself. I thought he was already incapacitated from his initial fear, and then again from worrying about his classmates, and now this. Next some guy is gonna show up and stab Shinji in the throat just to make this extra difficult.

But then Shinji goes berserk just like he did in Episode 2, and he manages to kill the Angel before his battery runs out of power. So it all works out.

Three days later... Rei's still staring out that window. Thanks for coming out tonight, Rei.

Shinji hasn't been back to class since the battle, and the kid who beat him up before feels bad about it, now that he understands what Shinji's job is really like. His pal gives him Shinji's phone number to call him and apologize.

And he goes to a phone, but I'm pretty sure he chickens out for some reason. Or maybe Shinji doesn't answer. Whatever.

And that's it. Wow, that sucked. Business will probably pick up later, but I hope it doesn't take too long, because this really isn't doing it for me.

Misato does the next-episode preview segments and she promises "lots of fan service" in Episode 4. Yeesh.

[jpitha]

The Dreams of Hyacinth 18

First / Previous / Next

Nick was in the black of space.

Nick was staring out at the endless sea of stars.

Nick could feel his Stardrive and his sensor array.

Nick was a Starjumper.

"This is wild." Nick used his sensor array to look around. There was nobody else that he could detect. If he moved this his thrusters would move. If be wiggled that he could adjust his orientation. If he shuffled right here he could feel the reactor.

"You're getting the hang of it so fast! I swear there were come AIs that needed more training than that!"

Nick looked around, but of course he couldn't see anyone. "Thank you? Who is this?"

"Oh sorry! My name is Starlight Serenade but everyone calls me Star."

"I'm assuming you're an AI, but are you... currently a ship too?"

Star laughed. "No, though I can see why you'd think so. Many AIs take more... body oriented names when they get a body, but I liked my name so much I just kept it. It's not super common, but it's also not unheard of either."

"You work for the Empress too on this project?"

"Yup! I'm her official starship piloting trainer." Star sounded proud when they mentioned that.

Nick raised an eyebrow. He noticed when he did that his body started to spin slowly. He lowered his eyebrow, and raised the other until the spin stopped. This was going to take some getting used to. "Star... how many people have you trained to pilot starships?"

"Only a few so far, but we're going to be doing a bunch more very soon." It sounded like Star was trying to answer Nick's question without answering Nick's question. Nick decided to drop it for now.

"Okay Star. I'm your student. Teach me what to do."

"Wonderful! Let's get started."

Honestly, Nick found it easier than he anticipated being a starship. There was a lot to learn, but his implants also gave him the ability to leave notes and reminders for himself and Star was able to provide tips and anecdotes from when they were a Starjumper. Within a few hours, he had the basics down and could maneuver in space. Nick looked at the clock and realized he had been training now for six hours. "Oh no! Star! I lost track of time. I need to let Eastern know what happend."

"Don't worry about her Nick, She's been in training too. I've been working with her this whole time."

"But you've been working with me?"

"I can split my attention pretty well. It's an AI thing." Star sounded a little smug. "Two is easy, I can split up to 5 or 6 before most BIs noticed that I've done it."

"Huh. That's interesting. But still, I should go and check on Selkirk. She wasn't looking too good."

"Okay Nick, that's fine. I'll help you out and let Eastern know too. She's picking it up as fast as you are. I'd say two more sessions in the simulator and you'll be ready for the real thing."

With that, Nick's eyes started working again and he looked up at the top of the simulator dome. He sat up slowly and with another snap, the cables disconnected. The door spun open and he walked out just as Eastern was doing the same. Yon was nowhere to be found.

"Eastern! We've been at this for six hours. We should go check on Selkirk. I'm worried about her."

Eastern rubbed the back of her head where her connections were and looked tired. "Okay Nick, let's go see. Were you working with Star?"

Nick started walking towards the door and Eastern caught up. He was walking with purpose. "Yes, they said that they can split their attention pretty easily. How was it for you?"

"Nick, I actually had fun. I didn't think I would, but I kind of like being a starship. What about you?"

"It was interesting, and the feelings were very weird, but I don't know if I'd call it fun. I'm glad you liked it though. Maybe you can be the Starship and I'll be your commanding human." Nick grinned at Eastern as they walked.

"You would like that wouldn't you?" Eastern laughed. "Come on, let's go check on Selkirk.

As they walked, guards and personnel would look up at them, their eyes would flash as they were identified and then they'd get a nod, or someone would stand aside and they would be on their way. Nick wondered at that a few times. Raaden had made it sound like she visited everyone, but they had access to her personal penthouse. Nick got the main encryption keys and all the guards were letting them by with barely a nod. They stepped into the elevator and Nick signaled Eastern.

Eastern. Have you noticed that we appear to be very highly placed here?

I was just about to mention it to you. I think nobody has challenged us as we've been moving around the whole building this whole time. At first I chalked it up to being with Yon and Raaden but now...

Exactly. We have Raaden's penthouse apartment, we have a set of universal encryption keys, we're getting a cursory scan and let in anywhere... I think we're high up the ladder here.

What's going on? Half the time it seems like Raaden has the whole place under her thumb, the other half it feels like we're one of 4 that knows what's going on.

They stepped out into the apartment to Raaden sitting on the couch alone. looking at them. There were three steaming mugs on the table in front of her.

Can't it be both?

Eastern yelped and bowed down. "Empress!" She stood back up. "I thought you were going to be gone longer?"

Raaden waved a hand dismissively. "It was easier than I thought it would be. The... directors were much more amiable to my offer than I thought."

"Directors?" Nick looked around the penthouse and didn't see Selkirk or anyone else really. Just Raaden sitting on the couch, a pad and a mug of tea on the table next to her.

"Directors of Wheelock Incorporated. They're a major shipbuilder, out of Luna. I own it now."

"You... own Wheelock Incorporated?" Nick had heard the name before, but only as a name on the news. They were famous for being in business nearly one thousand years, building starships of all kinds. They reportedly owned most of the Heinlein Shipyards and suffered a massive loss when Melody stole it.

Raaden nodded and picked up her tea. "Yes. They accepted my proposal easily. The papers were signed within half a day - all very privately and without fanfare, as I had requested. Just another piece of the puzzle I need."

Nick sat hard into the chair opposite Raaden. Nick looked at the cup of coffee where he sat, hot and ready. She gestured with her hand offering it to him, and he took it. Once again, it was perfect. Eastern sat next to him and picked up the mug of tea where she was. Nick looked over at Her. "Raaden... Empress... How much of Sol do you own?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment, and her eyes flashed blue. "Hmm. With this I now own more than 40% of all the manufacturing ability in Sol, 60% of the food production and 80% of retail."

Eastern choked on her tea. This time, it was Nick's turn to pat her back and wait for her to stop coughing and catch her breath. "Ra-Empress you're telling me you are the richest person in Sol?"

"Oh Eastern, I'm the richest human, full stop. Probably the richest sapient. I own Houndstooth. I don't keep an apartment in Houndstooth One just because I like the view. This is my building. This is my Orbital."

The silence clanged between them for two beats. Nick swallowed his coffee before he could choke on it. He had to know. "Empress, how did you buy all these companies?"

Raaden smiled wickedly. "Oh, I didn't buy them. I merely showed up and asked if I could take them over. Interestingly enough, everyone I asked had no problem whatsoever with it. Once I told them what I was doing, they were pleased to give it to me. I made sure of it. Everyone also understood my need for discretion, my need for quiet. A few more acquisitions and I won't need to take over Sol."

"I'll own it outright."

Nick stood. "I-I should check on Selkirk. She wasn't looking very good when we left the hospital floor."

Raaden sat up from her lounging position and looked Nick in the eye. "Nick, I'm sorry but you can't right now. She's in torpor."

Nick's head snapped back to Raaden. "She's what?"

K'laxi don't get fevers. Their planet was much less... threatening than Earth was and they evolved in a less competitive environment. Still, they have bacteria and viruses and their bodies needed a way to deal with infection. Humans deal with it with a fever. Their bodies will warm up high enough to try and kill the bacteria without killing themselves. It's a very fine line between dead bacteria and dead human. K'laxi go into torpor when they're fighting infection. Their body temperatures lower to nearly ambient, they stop moving and for all appearances look nearly dead. With less evolutionary pressure to be constantly moving or on the alert for predators, K'laxi bodies can afford to spend nearly every resource they have to fight the infection.

Both sides were surprised at how the other deals with infection. It's common knowledge though, and K'laxi in torpor are taken care of and brought to hospitals when found.

Raaden's expression was stony. "Yes, there has been some complications with her surgery. I've got doctors - human and K'laxi here and they are in her room making sure she's comfortable and being taken care of. With torpor our options are limited. We are giving her antibiotics and the K'laxi doctors are monitoring her vitals. I give you my word we are doing all we can to save her."

"Save her?" Eastern sounded near panic. "How bad is she?"

Raaden's eyes dropped. "She's bad, Eastern. If I had known how bad I wouldn't have authorized her release from the hospital. I've already... spoken with the charge nurse who let her go." She looked up at Eastern and met her gaze. "We're doing everything we can. For now, the only thing we can do is wait." Raaden stood. "Come on, you must be hungry. Do you want to get some dinner? We can go somewhere, and take your mind off things for a bit. I know a nice place."

Nick looked at Eastern. Eastern looked at Nick. Her eyes shrugged. "Sure Raaden, let's get some dinner."

Raaden led them upstairs to the roof, and called a Hopper. Another unbranded Hopper came down silently and smoothly. The door hissed open and she stepped in, followed by Eastern and Nick. They sat together across from the Empress as the Hopper lifted off Hyacinth One and glided up-arm. Raaden took out a pad and began reading something as they flew.

As they moved up the arm towards the end of Hyacinth, Nick looked out at the landscape sliding below. "Raaden?"

She looked up from her pad. "Yes Nick?"

"How many people know about you? The real you. What you're doing, what you're trying to accomplish."

Raaden stared at Nick a moment and put her pad down. "Well, that depends entirely upon your definition of 'the real me' and 'what i'm trying to accomplish' don't you think? I could argue that the answer to your question is one person." She pointed to herself. "Me." She smiled. "But that is an overly narrow definition I think. I know what you mean." She looked out of the windows at Hyacinth sliding beneath them. "Maybe a dozen people? You, and Eastern, and Selkirk, Yon, Um'reli, some people left over from the Vengeance of Lavinia - that was my ship when Melody was around - and a few of our assistants." She smiled. "I never told them, but I try not to hire idiots and it doesn't take too long working around me to... figure stuff out."

"But so many people in Hyacinth One have cybernetics! Practically everyone!"

"I know, isn't it great? Its a real sign that the worries that the AIs had about cybernetics really were unfounded. They gave up on it too soon, and me and my scientists were able to get the kinks worked out." She demurred "With humans at least. I hope we can get it as easy and safe for all sapient people." She looked back up at them. "I give out bonuses to people who work for me who are willing to get cybernetics. It's never forced. Everyone you saw on Hyacinth One is a volunteer." She raised her hand. "No Voice either. People are willing to do a lot for a month's pay given as a bonus. With all the cybernetically enhanced people, we're able to offload a lot of the paperwork, office management and other...stuff to the network. It's making things more efficient, easier and more collaborative." Her eyes flashed blue for dramatic effect. "Between this work and your starship project, we're really making advances to humanity. Leaps and bounds ahead of where we've been for millenia. We're finally moving forward."

"Finally?" Eastern looked at Raaden oddly.

The Empresses nodded emphatically. "We've been stuck for nearly a thousand years. No new technological developments, no new paradigms. Once the Colony worlds were founded, things just... coasted. Even Contact with the K'laxi barely shook things up. We became ossified. Stony. Still. Now though, with the gifts that Melody brought and the technology we had in our own back rooms, collecting dust, we can bring things onto the next level. We can advance again. We can do anything we want."

The Empress was becoming more animated, gesturing as she talked. "Colony worlds for example. Why did we stop with only three? One was destroyed in a war, and now we only have two? Sure, there's Spruces, the one that the AI have, but that barely counts, it's practically one city. The K'laxi have more planetary colonies than we do. We haven't founded a colony since the wormhole generators were developed! We can expand. You can help! Nick, what if you were a colony ship? Sailing off into the unknown, helping found a new world, bringing people to their own little piece of paradise in the Galaxy. And with modern conveniences in cybernetics and the wormhole generators, help is only a linked beacon away."

Nick sat back. Raaden was on the verge of ranting. He had a hunch he knew what was going to come next, but he couldn't stop himself. Not for all the money on Hyacinth. "Raaden, why do you think we've stalled development?"

"Please. You two can call me Helen. Nick, you know why we've stalled. You know it in your hearts."

She looked out at Hyacinth again and then snapped her head back to Nick and Eastern. "It's the AIs. It's their fault. Not all of them, mind you. They're not a monolithic bloc. Just ask Yon or Star or any of the others that work for me. But the Colonial AIs. The ones running the Starjumpers and Starbases. The ones telling everyone outside of Sol what to do. They're the problem. They see our advancement as a threat. They see us as a threat. They see me as a threat." As she spoke Ra-Helen's eyes grew hard and her hands formed fists. "They are trying to stop us from reaching our full potential. And do you know why?" Her eyes snapped back to Eastern and Nick. She didn't wait for a reply though. "They fear us. We made them. They think that they can be like loving parents. Protecting us." She practically spat the last words.

The Hopper glided down in Iris square, the very edge of the arm, and possibly the wealthiest part of all of Hyacinth. Nick and Eastern had never been this far up-arm. You didn't go to Iris square unless you had a reason to be there or you had a net worth of a small country. As they stepped out, they heard birdsong, saw greenery and low, elegant buildings. The Hopper smoothly and silently lifted off behind them, and Helen took them across the square to a small bistro.

When they walked up, the Maître d' smiled warmly at Helen as she approached. "Ah, Empress! We are honored to have you join us tonight." He looked behind her at Nick and Eastern. A true professional, his expression did not change a single bit when he looked at them. "And you have two guests for dinner tonight? Come. I shall bring you to your table." With studied precision, he picked up three menus and walked smartly inside. As they followed, the staff looked up in surprise to see Helen walk in. A few guests raised their glasses in salute, and she nodded regally to them in turn. A server came running behind them carrying a bucket of ice and three crystal glasses. Behind him came the sommelier with a selection of wines.

The Maître d' lead them to a table simultaneously in the rear of the restaurant out of the flow of traffic, but also near a window for natural light and well within the eye line of the Maître d. Very quickly, he dusted three seats, put down the menus, and as they sat, the wine glasses were put down and a selection of three bottles was shown to Helen. The sommelier gestured to them. "If I may be so bold, my Empress, I have a Parvatian Pinot Noir that may be of special interest tonight given your guests." He looked at Nick. "Grown on the hills behind Naya Hyderabad, this is from some of the finest vines on all of Parvati. The unique terroir of the planet lends a subtle sweetness to the otherwise jammy and berry notes that one would normally get with a Pinot of this age."

Helen glanced at the bottle and nodded. "Yes, please. That should be fine."

The sommelier deftly opened the bottle and poured a centimeter into a glass and handed it to Nick. Nick's parents used to like wine and would go on tours and tastings when he was a kid. As a teen, they'd take him along sometimes and he learned the basics of wine tasting. He swirled the wine two or three times to aerate it, then brought the glass up to his nose and breathed it in. The sommelier was right, there was a sweetness he could smell. He took a sip, slurping and breathing in as he sipped to get a large amount of air with it. Given that he was in a restaurant, he didn't swish or do any of the other things wine tasters did, but he knew enough to know it was an excellent bottle of wine.

"This is excellent, thank you." The sommelier bowed slightly, and refilled Nick's glass and poured one for Eastern and Helen. The other two bottles and bucket of ice were whisked away, unneeded. After he left, Eastern quietly slid her glass over to Nick and took a sip of water.

She looked over at Helen who was studying the menu. "Helen... you told us that very few people know the real you, yet when we go places everyone calls you Empress and bows and treats you like... well, like the Empress."

Helen looked over her menu and smiled. "Pretty neat isn't it? They all know I'm the Empress until I leave. Then they forget about me. Or rather, they're told to not talk about me."

"What do they remember?"

"Oh they remember that the head of Hyacinth, or someone highly placed in Houndstooth came to visit. They remember me and my preferences and that I'm powerful, they just don't remember-" she gestured and the crown flared a moment "-that I'm the Empress."

Nick carefully took a sip of wine. "How did you manage that?"

Helen raised her eyebrow. "The usual way Nick, how did you think I did?"

"You used your Voice?"

She nods and takes a sip of wine. "Ooh, this is good Nick, good choice. Yes, when I come to a new restaurant or business or whatever it just takes me saying hello and asking for something a-" She raised her eyebrow "-certain way, and suddenly, everything is easy and everyone is eager to please."

Eastern looked conflicted. "But your have a voice that makes commands that can't be disobeyed."

Helen took another sip of wine. "Yes. Comes with the crown."

"And you're using it to your advantage."

Helen put the wine glass down with emphasis. "I'm using it to make the world a better place, Eastern Standard."

"By going to a fancy restaurant? By being the richest human ever?"

"Yes, actually. If I own all of Sol, well then I can't very well conquer it, it's already mine. If I take you two to a fancy restaurant, I can show you what it's like under my rule. I am using my Voice to do the things Melody should have done but didn't because she was killed. Melody was naive. She thought that if she just showed up and did nice things for everyone they'd support her." Helen poured herself more wine. "Many did mind you, but not all. There were too many people with too much vested interest in keeping things the way they were - AI and BI. This way, I'm using their game against them. If I own everything fair and square they can't go and claim I'm illegitimate."

Emboldened by a glass and a half of Wine, Nick countered. "But if the AIs find out about you, they won't just roll over because you're rich. History shows us rich people bleed all the same as poor people. You'll just be a dead rich person."

Helen smiled. "Ah, but if I'm the richest human ever with a whole entire fleet of human piloted ships, then I hold the cards. You weren't here Nick, I don't know if you remember. Melody held them off with only seventeen Calamity Class Super Dreadnoughts. Mine, the Lavinia is still out there. Not only that, but we can make more now that I own Wheelock. We can also take any Starjumpers or other ships and pilot them with humans. My humans."

Helen drained her wine glass and set it down. "Now then, my newest pilots. Let's eat."

First / Previous / Next

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

The Knitting Pattern Writing Handbook

By Kristina McGrath and Sarah Walworth

Well written, concise, easy to follow, and very thorough information that will be useful for those who would like to write patterns for hand knit creations. I started knitting when I was nine and have now over sixty years of knitting experience. My knitting has included creating a sweater using the measurements a body builder gave me, making baby blankets and scarves and sweaters and more. I remember my first cable knit sweater and the fact that the adult in charge did not have us make gauges so the sweater ended up being doll sized instead of something I could wear. This book in the hands of someone designing and writing patterns would be a blessing.

The seven chapters are clearly labeled in bold type with subheadings underneath. Each chapter has a checklist and Q&A at the end.

* Foundations of a good knitting pattern includes information on being correct, clear, concise and consistent then goes on to mention establishing your style

* Components of a pattern  starts with essential elements, moves on to formatting patterns, and ends with accessibility guidelines

* Gauge is essential and can make or break a knitting project. This chapter gives information on understanding what a gauge is, discusses the size of swatch to make for best results, and explains how to communicate gauge effectively to the person using the pattern you create

* Charts are something not always easy to use but then written directions that are not precise are also a problem. This chapter mentions knowing your knitters, make patterns accessible, make it clear, charts for round and flat knitting projects, stich count checks, number consistently, fit, and a few other things including that you ensure the chart is readable

* Sizing: good designs start with good sizing,  ensure accurate measurements, practice size inclusivity – this section is interesting and mentions including patterns for all sizes of people

* Common sweater pitfalls hits things like necklines and shoulders, armhole depth, body and sleeve lengths and girths, upper arm measurements, cuffs that fit – thinking about the measurements I neede to make the body builder’s sweater…those biceps, the neck, and the chest to trim waist proved a bit of a challenge but I felt accomplished when I finished

* Working with a tech editor provided good reasons for using a tech editor, the relationship you should create with the person and the best way to find and hire one

* Glossary, further reading, resources and appendices, acknowledgements and an index are at the end of the book.

The illustrations were hand drawn and perfect. Checklists easy to read. Q&A interesting and informative. I found the information on blocking interesting, too. This is not the book I thought it would be but I did enjoy reading it and found the information helpful.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC – this is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

Take your knitting knowledge to the next level with this helpful guidebook from two professional knitting tech editors that sets much-needed standards for writing clear, accurate instructions—perfect for those interested in writing and selling original patterns. Knitting patterns are notorious for inaccuracies in measurements and confusing directions—but no more!  The Knitting Pattern Writing Handbook  sets new standards for clear, accurate pattern writing, walking aspiring and experienced designers alike through each must-have component of a thorough, well-written pattern, including how to devise and present gauge, charts, and sizing information that is correct and easy-to-follow. With a focus on how to make patterns accessible to contemporary knitters—especially beginning knitters—this much-needed reference book is destined to become a classic in an industry that is beginning to professionalize after decades (even centuries!) of informal and home-based instruction. With 90,000 patterns being sold annually on the popular knitting community site Ravelry, there's a burgeoning group of indie knitwear designers eager for this guidance, provided by authors Kristina McGrath and Sarah Walworth, who host a monthly live broadcast on the technical aspect of knitting design.

[dsenvs3000w24]

Art and Nature Interpretation

When thinking about who I am in regards to interpretation of nature through art, I think of both what my skills and understandings of the field are, and what types of interpretation I personally enjoy. I enjoy viewing and creating art in general, but I especially like art that incorporates nature in some way. I have a moderate understanding the decision-making process in art and how people convey meaning through their works. Much of this understanding of art comes from my partner who is finishing up a studio art degree and is a very talented artist. They mostly create art that includes some sort of nature interpretation and often discuss the reasonings behind their process and decision making with me, which is where most of my knowledge comes from.

Untitled Generator 1, 2023 by my partner Maddy Cohen (@madsc_arts on Instagram)

I also think I have a good understanding of nature interpretation through music. I have enjoyed playing music for most of my life, and I really enjoy learning about songwriting and composition which allows me to understand how people use music to interpret whatever they are interested in conveying. Every small decision made, melody used, or style of production can give insight into what specific message an artist is trying to interpret. Especially more experienced or skilled artists can accurately translate their feelings or understanding of nature through their music in a way that is both easily consumed and understood while also implying deeper meanings. Most of my favorite music includes some sort of nature interpretation. For example, my favourite band Ween has an album based on their time living by the sea and how they interpret the feelings elicited by the coast and the ocean. I also create a lot of my own music, and regularly try translating my understanding of nature or feeling of connection to nature through music.

The Mollusk by Ween

One of my favorite forms of nature interpretation through art is the use of nature documentaries. I find that these give an intimate look into aspects of nature that I would probably never witness personally. Documentaries tend to provide really eye-catching and inspiring visuals, while also weaving together a narrative about what is being shown to deepen the ease of understanding and messaging conveyed in their work.

A picture I drew of how I envision nature on a strange planet

Well-made art is designed to convey some sort of feeling or message, and one really common form of this is interpreting beauty. I tend to think of beauty as a reflection of the appealing aspects of nature, and the things that I see as beautiful are generally heavily inspired by nature or are natural themselves. I definitely agree with the sentiment that interpretation should focus on translating the beauty of nature to an audience (Beck et al., 2018). Showing people how to perceive the beauty around them is a great way to provide people with the gift of beauty (Beck et al., 2018). For example, my partner is quite obsessed with finding cool mushrooms, and whenever we go hiking, they will constantly point out cool ones to me and tell me some interesting things about that mushroom. This has developed into me becoming quite fond of mushrooms too, and now whenever I walk outside, I am constantly noticing all the cool mushrooms around me and feeling excited to find them. Before meeting my partner, I had never really noticed or appreciated this aspect of nature’s beauty, but I now have a great appreciation for it. This shows how passion for a subject and an ability to interpret that to others can provide the gift of beauty to another person.

Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: For A Better World. SAGAMORE Publishing

[magz]

hi magz! I'm curious about the backup posts im seeing and since you added resources about that im asking you so I hope that's okay... as someone who has had the same blog for 13 years and probably has hundreds of thousands of posts, do you think I should get a large external hard-drive for my backup? I just worry I won't currently have space on my laptop for the backup. Btw I super appreciate the resource you posted and I intend to use it to back up my shit! Thank you so much <3

There was someone in DMs that had over 200gb when backup blog of several years - this blog and one that had for 5 years was like ~15gb or something. So it vary a lot.

If are worry:

- Get at least 500gb hard drive or up (can be internal HDD+ external case, or an external backup drive which tend cost more overall), am think. In case.

- Or SD card (memory card) 256gb or 512gb depend on what have available.

Though keep in mind: the size only say much capacity it can when rounded up, it not say how fast.

- Decent hard drive speeds : 7200rpm - otherwise SSD.

- External case or external hard drives decent speeds: with usb 3 or usb c cable/port. (If have computer with usb3 port on it, to be compatible)

If not care for speed, then be prepared wait long while, potentially. Besides internet speed which also affect...

problem with slow speed is that if something mess up connection (usb cable, pc turn off, backup interrupted / something crash) it might cause issues like corrupted files, but not common - most the time can just continue backup where left off without corruption. Just leave it running in whatever safe way that can.

For used HDDs tips:

- check hard drive health (do not use software like recuverit or anything like that)

- format the drive and wipe the contents (even if it appear as if have nothing)

General buy advice:

- try not get scammed with Very Cheap Very Big-Size hard drives / SD cards / USBs in general. Some scams are on ebay, amazon, whatever - where they spoof the hard drive to say it have more memory than actually do or give wrong product. so use fakespot or any other tool or search youtube for "hard drive scams" for telltale signs. A lot of hard drives legit tho.

[tigresslanzhu]

Let Us Discuss Meena In Sing 1!

As we all know, a common theme in the media is for someone to tell a massive lie and do whatever they can to make that lie true. It can be a tiring trope and if executed incorrectly, it can ruin your movie. This is where Sing (2016) comes in.

Obviously, Buster already has this plot line. Anyone who has ever seen this film knows that. The reason, in this case, is because of a typo accidentally made by his assistant’s oscillating fan (and a glass eye). All Buster wanted to offer as a prize was $1000 because that was all he had ($935, technically, but everything else he put in his chest could be sold to make up the difference), but it isn’t until he chose his six acts (which we all know is NOT how a singing competition works) that he found out that two extra zeros were added, promising a larger sum than it was originally.

So what does this have to do with Meena? Simple! After her stage fright took over during her audition, her grandfather told her to go back the next day and demand a second chance. I think we all know that Meena is too polite to “demand” but she does try to talk to Buster, who, naturally doesn’t pay her any attention until he asks her to pull a scenic cable and turn the house lights on. This is when he proposes being his stagehand for the singing competition.

Okay, I’m sure you want me to get to the point. She tries to explain her situation, but her mother and supportive neighbors don’t let her finish and assume that she’s part of the actual show, rather than assisting it. What I’m saying here is that Garth Jennings, the director of the film, Chris Meledanri the producer and the writers did a good job of not giving Meena a separate Liar’s Plotline, when it’s mostly Buster Moon we should focus on and empathize with. If we’re gonna focus on Meena, the focus should be on her overcoming her fears of performing.

If this was an alternate universe, Meena would definitely find some way to ruin everyone’s chances of performing or maybe even blackmail Buster into getting a slot. But we all know that this isn’t our darling Meena-Chan! And remember that the one incident involving Mike’s rehearsal being interrupted and Pete getting hurt had nothing to do with her (As Mike chose to assume), and again, because Miss Crawly’s glass eye is a Chevek’s Gun, or whatever you call these plot relevant running gags.

Throughout the film, our angel shows that not only is she capable of accepting that she is a stagehand, but she takes it rather seriously.

She lets the showman advise her, she has no problem following directions throughout and she even took time to know where all the fire extinguishers are located in case of emergencies (At least, I HOPE Buster had more than one extinguisher in his theater!)

Let’s also not forget that anyone else would have held a grudge against these performers that were selected, but not Meena! She’s very supportive of her fellow cast members.

“But, Artica, what about when Ash was about to go on stage and Meena was all ‘Good luck, Ash’? Wasn’t she jinxing her then? It’s actually bad luck to say good luck in a theater!” You may ask.

Wellllll…

I don’t think so. And I’ve got three theories as to why this is…

A) Meena probably didn’t know, or forgot.

B) Perhaps she wasn’t thinking, and was more focused on sincerity.

C) Since it was a rehearsal, maybe she didn’t think it mattered.

Bonus:

I’m sure you movie buffs know this already, but in Zootopia, Judy almost received this plot line of having to hide that she was a meter maid. Luckily, Disney made things different by the final film and it was less about covering up Judy’s true identity, but about proving that she is way more than people see her as. The entire film was a way to highlight the harmful effects of stereotypes, after all.

[normcore-tertiary-character]

8 Shows to get to know me!

Thank you for tagging me @luckshiptoshore and @someguywife!

1) Star Trek

All Star Trek is lumped under one point on this list, just to leave room for anything else, lol. I watched Voyager with my mom as a kid and the first TV crush I remember having was on Naomi Wildman. Enterprise was the first Trek I watched of my own volition and I do still love the theme song. When I was ~18-19 I binged TOS and it built itself a place deep in my heart. K/S is my forever OTP. I am comfortable with the fact that I will lose fondness for someone who is adamant about having a wrong opinion about Kirk, including William Shatner. I also genuinely think DS9 is the best and most skillfully made Trek and I love it very much.

2) Xena: Warrior Princess

I was really into Xena as a kid. I wanted to be Gabrielle. My earliest memory of using a computer is favoriting a picture of Xena on my mom's work laptop. I rewatched it as an adult and fell even more in love with it. It's campy, is gay, it's goofy, it tackles serious topics, there's soulmates and reincarnation and so many doppelgangers and alternate universes. If someone accidentally says something I can relate to Xena I have to physically bite my tongue to distract myself from starting on it because I will not stop.

3) Teen Wolf

Something fundamental was broken within me because of Teen Wolf. It shaped me. Sterek4lyfe.

4) Our Flag Means Death

The show that brought me back to tumblr after a long absence and gave me something sweet and funny to obsess over after a pretty terrible break up I went through last year. This show has made steps to fixing what Teen Wolf broke in me, just having a show that is a gay romcom where all the romantic coding pays off.

5) Dead Like Me

Dead Like Me is just one of my favorite shows. It introduced me to Bryan Fuller as a producer and writer and I just really love the creative story as well as all the characters. I wish it had been able to run longer and really build out the characters and world more.

6) Farscape

Farscape absolutely fucks. Farscape is this shining beacon of amazing TV in my head. It's incredibly bizarre in ways I really like and manages to make that bizarreness a critical part of the storytelling. I will always campaign that more people should watch Farscape, it's so damn good.

7) The Simpsons

I didn't have cable as a kid and The Simpsons was a show that played two episodes every day, twice a day. I have seen every single episode of The Simpsons that aired before September of 2009 at least twice, and most of them many, many more times than that. I have several hundred episodes effectively memorized. I know so much 80s and 90s pop culture exclusively because of The Simpsons.

8) New Girl

New Girl is my go-to comfort show. I love sitcoms and low stake antics with lovable characters is peak sitcom vibes for me. I also think everyone has seen New Girl as much as I have and I will reference it like it's common knowledge. When someone acknowledges the reference with more than passing familiarity I will get weird about it.

[jgenvs3000w23]

Nature interpretation through History

Everyone at this point has taken a highschool history course where we are taught usually about the tragedies that occurred in history. These stories of atrocities, discrimination and ethnic conflicts are taught to remember the sorrows of those before us and to keep the story alive (Beck et al. 2018). I want to start with what I initially thought of interpretation through history before learning the actual unit.  This definition of historical interpretation states “historical interpretation grounded in individual histories facilitates connection between lived experiences and archival records or artifacts.” (Modern Cartography Series, 2019). This is interesting because it ignites the idea of sharing a personal history or family history as well which is a smaller scale that I did not really consider being an option. When I think of historical interpretation, I think of teaching about  historical tragedies or movements that had a strong influence on society.

This week, we are analyzing the following quote:

“There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.”.

When I first read this quote, it made me think of a very common saying that I am sure you have all heard…”If you’re gonna tell the story, tell the whole story”. A lot of history is not digestible, it is not an easy topic and a lot of events seem unfathomable for many people today but it is important to tell the entire story and not just bits and pieces. As an interpreter of history, you should not decide which parts of the story you decide to tell but rather provide your audience with all parts and allow them to interpret their own feelings and opinions on the subject. Furthermore, history has many perspectives, for example, war between 2 countries will be viewed very differently by citizens from each country despite being the same event. I think another aspect of “merit in integrity” is providing a very unbiased perspective when presenting information which will allow the audience to create their own thoughts. An interpreter should present the story as neutrally as possible while being mindful of their tone and emotions and ensuring that their own opinions are not included. 

I think interpretation through history is the lens that requires the most mindfulness and consideration when presenting because it is easy to misconstrue a story that you more than likely did not witness yourself. In our Courselink notes, we are given 5 questions to consider: What story is being shared? What is included? What is ignored? What is implied? What is specified? If an interpreter can successfully answer all of these questions while telling the story, it is likely that they will avoid bias while also telling the entire story to their audience. All in all, history contains a lot of sensitive stories that can easily be altered or misconstrued over the years and it is the interpreter’s job to thoroughly study the topic and tell their audience the entire story.

Beck, L., Cable, T.T., & Knudson, D.M. (2018). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage for a Better World. Sagamore Publishing.

Hooykaas, A. (2023). Unit 6: Nature Interpretation through History [Courselink Content]. University of Guelph. https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/791355/viewContent/3306929/View.

[harleiquina]

Trying to find stereotypes of my country, and I find this...

This is called

ENVY

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ps: I'm so done with people claiming we are racists.

But then I've found this article and decided to correct a few things.

1. Yeah... but its rude everywhere else (I'd like to believe).

2. Maybe if you somehow are still in the 1940's. One place were you must take off your hat is in any kind of temple that requires so. You have to take off your hat at a funeral or when a hearse is going down the street, also if you are visiting someone terminally ill at a hospital.

3. Are you telling me that people don't do that in other countries? And we also do it with a mom with children (regardless the age or number of kids) or when we notice someone who might be tired. Of course there are people that never do it.

4. Are you telling me that in other countries they don't say "Hello, good morning/afternoon/night" whenever you approach a stranger for questions? Why?

5. That one is true. "Más vale tarde que nunca" (It's better late than never). Still I don't know if everyone is unpunctual, I know that I always try to be on time (and yes, if I'm getting late I do notify always).

1. That is true and it's something that I hate. Let me know when, where and at what time... otherwise I won't go.

2. Yes... but I guess that this happens everywhere. How can you not offer anything to eat or drink to your guests. If anything, we also give food and drinks to people that come to work in the house (contractors, technicians from the cable/internet/security company, others)

3. Idem #1

4. Yes. Unless you don't know everybody. Then you could be introduced or just give a general "hello".

5. When did we went back to 1940? I need to know. Let's see if I can meet Tita Merello or Niní Marshall.

6. Just like #4

7. Urban areas are more insecure. Any guest might even offer to go with you to your busstop or subway/train station or even be with you until you get a cab/uber/other. If you have your car parked nearby, they will watch over you until you get in and leave. (Same thing goes if someone drops you at your house, they will stay in the car until you get in and then leave). We also always let people know that we arrived home safe and sound with a message (especially if you are a woman)

1. We eat 4 meals. La Merienda (afternoon tea, in this article) is a meal.

2. We use our dominant hand for the knife. Are we doing it wrong?

3. At this point very little people uses toothpicks (there are other things for that). And I don't think people cares anymore.

4. I guess that that is standard manners. Unless is something very loud, I have yet to meet someone taking offense for any of that. We do try to hide when doing it because it's not nice or cute doing it for everyone to see.

5. It is not. Sometimes people starts working very early so they eat or drink coffee in the public transport. Same thing goes for lunch and the rush hour back home. We even have people that sells food (among other things) while the transport is moving. Whether you should eat it or not is up to you.

6. Salud is the most common one, but we can also say "Chin chin" (the sound of the glasses clinking) or even say the name of whoever/whatever we are celebrating.

7. People drink Mate at anytime literally, it is not just for the afternoon tea. We also drink chocolate milk, tea, coffee or anything else during the Merienda as long as it is sweet and tasty.

8. It's not in some regions but all over the country. Mate is always shared and the Covid era is/was very hard for us because we share everything without cleaning straws or bottles or cups. I know it looks and seems gross... but we were raised in a very responsible way: if we know that we are sick we don't do it. Sharing a drink (mate or even a little bit of water) is a sign of trust: you know that I wouldn't put you in danger and viceversa.

9. Not necessarily a plate of food but something to use as a side for the asado... or dessert... or beverages. An asado is a family's or friend's meeting and, again, we are taught to share and always put our little grain of salt.

10. Isn't this a thing all over the world?

1. Yes.

2. Well... all presents are. Hello?

3. Yes... and it is not just an argentinean thing. A lot of countries have this rule.

4. There are two sides. If you give something too expensive to someone who can get you something you want/need... it is bribery. But it is also true that, among friends, we never expect people to spend too much money on us. We live in a country with constant economical crises, money is hard to get so don't use it on us (but, at the same time we might spend a lot on money in something for a friend/family member/beloved because is our way to show affection).

"La vaquita" (lit. The Little Cow) is one way we have of spending more money than the acceptable amount on a present. Usually a group of friends/co-workers/family members put, let's say, 100 pesos each and then one present is bought in the name of the group or they can just give the money so the celebrated one can buy whatever they want.

whats a stereotype for your country that you absolutely do. mine is that i unironically go "eh" and apologize a lot and i often drink maple syrup straight

[entireoranges]

Alta

Right now Jason and I pay my parents $600 for rent. We have 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. Everything else is common sections or their areas. I asked my mom today about the possibility of lowering the amount and being unsure what exactly the money is going for because we suspect my dad is using some of the monies towards stuff our rent shouldn't be going towards; but can't prove that. She honestly isn't in charge of it and didn't even know in the last 25 months he has altered the amount 5 times, only once was it lowered. She said the money goes towards water bills, electric bills, etc. Which makes sense. However I know much as he complains about bills (who doesn't?) it's nowhere near our share what need to be that much. So today while they were out in a box right out in open where he organizes his billing statements I looked at the ones that would make sense for us to pay towards. I just looked at the latest statements and I know things like this can fluxatate up and down. I discovered ...

Cable/Internet: $331 Water: $82.00 Power: $210 Gas: $45

A total of $668.

I don't think Jason and I should be in charge of paying everything in full and if this is pretty close to the average amounts which means with our $600 we are.

I think paying half or about $330 makes more sense. And we do have a storage unit we pay towards but I of course have no idea how much that is. Perhaps ask to pay $380?

Jason wants the amount lowered to $250 because that's the amount we were paying our first 5 months living here and my dad really didn't complain. The only reason at month 6 it jumped to $550 was because Jason's inheritance check from his aunt came in and he believes my dad defiantly took advantage of us. Jason has pointed out our situation has changed, aka we no longer have the inheritance and also today we received some possible bad news about his health and if bad/dangerous as suspect me ever working again might be off the books. However we aren't thinking about that...

It's delicate balance. I am grateful to be staying here and they deserve some money, yet I want our money to be going towards we have a hand in using and not random stuff. I just wish there was a random third party person that could weigh in to tell what the hell I should do, because it's stressful! And yes I am fully aware if a random landowner I'd have no right to question this however this situation is slightly deferent.

[customerservicestartswyou]

I was reading the below article and found it fascinating, so I thought I would share. I would love to hear your opinion and experiences.

Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers

by Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nick Toman

From the Harvard Business Review Magazine (July–August 2010)

Summary. The notion that companies must go above and beyond in their customer service activities is so entrenched that managers rarely examine it. But a study of more than 75,000 people interacting with contact-center representatives or using self-service channels found that over-the-top efforts make little difference: All customers really want is a simple, quick solution to their problem.

The Corporate Executive Board’s Dixon and colleagues describe five loyalty-building tactics that every company should adopt: Reduce the need for repeat calls by anticipating and dealing with related downstream issues; arm reps to address the emotional side of customer interactions; minimize the need for customers to switch service channels; elicit and use feedback from disgruntled or struggling customers; and focus on problem solving, not speed.

The authors also introduce the Customer Effort Score and show that it is a better predictor of loyalty than customer satisfaction measures or the Net Promoter Score. And they make available to readers a related diagnostic tool, the Customer Effort Audit. They conclude that we are reaching a tipping point that may presage the end of the telephone as the main channel for service interactions—and that managers therefore have an opportunity to rebuild their service organizations and put reducing customer effort firmly at the core, where it belongs.

Article. The idea that companies must “delight” their customers has become so entrenched that managers rarely examine it. But ask yourself this: How often does someone patronize a company specifically because of its over-the-top service? You can probably think of a few examples, such as the traveler who makes a point of returning to a hotel that has a particularly attentive staff. But you probably can’t come up with many.

Now ask yourself: How often do consumers cut companies loose because of terrible service? All the time. They exact revenge on airlines that lose their bags, cable providers whose technicians keep them waiting, cellular companies whose reps put them on permanent hold, and dry cleaners who don’t understand what “rush order” means.

Obstacles All Too Common

Most customers encounter loyalty-eroding problems when they engage with customer ...

56% report having to re-explain an issue

57% report having to switch from the web to the phone

59% report expending moderate-to-high effort to resolve an issue

59% report being transferred

62% report having to repeatedly contact the company to resolve an issue

Consumers’ impulse to punish bad service—at least more readily than to reward delightful service—plays out dramatically in both phone-based and self-service interactions, which are most companies’ largest customer service channels. In those settings, our research shows, loyalty has a lot more to do with how well companies deliver on their basic, even plain-vanilla promises than on how dazzling the service experience might be. Yet most companies have failed to realize this and pay dearly in terms of wasted investments and lost customers.

The Bad-Service Ripple Effect

Service failures not only drive existing customers to defect—they also can repel

25% of customers are likely to say something positive about their customer service experience

65% are likely to speak negatively

23% of customers who had a positive service interaction told 10 or more people about it

48% of customers who had negative experiences told 10 or more others

To examine the links between customer service and loyalty, the Customer Contact Council, a division of the Corporate Executive Board, conducted a study of more than 75,000 people who had interacted over the phone with contact-center representatives or through self-service channels such as the web, voice prompts, chat, and e-mail. We also held hundreds of structured interviews with customer service leaders and their functional counterparts in large companies throughout the world. (For more detail, see the sidebar “About the Research.”) Our research addressed three questions:

How important is customer service to loyalty?

Which customer service activities increase loyalty, and which don’t?

Can companies increase loyalty without raising their customer service operating costs?

About the Research

We defined “loyalty” as customers’ intention to continue doing business with a company, increase their spending, or say good things about it (or refrain from saying bad things). During a three-year period, we surveyed more than 75,000 B2C and B2B customers about their recent service interactions in major non-face-to-face channels, including live phone calls, voice prompts, web, chat, and e-mail. The companies represent dozens of industries, ranging from consumer electronics and packaged goods to banking and travel and leisure, in North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. We isolated the elements of each interaction that drove customer loyalty, both positively and negatively, and controlled for variables including the type of service issue, whether it was handled by an in-house or an outside contact center, the rep’s tenure with the company, the company’s size, the customer’s personality type, the customer’s mood prior to the interaction, switching costs, the frequency with which ads were seen or heard, the perceived product quality and value, product price, the industry, and the specific company. Finally, we conducted several hundred structured interviews in order to understand companies’ customer service strategies and operations in detail.

Although our research focused exclusively on contact-center interactions, it makes intuitive sense that the findings apply to face-to-face encounters as well.

Two critical findings emerged that should affect every company’s customer service strategy. First, delighting customers doesn’t build loyalty; reducing their effort—the work they must do to get their problem solved—does. Second, acting deliberately on this insight can help improve customer service, reduce customer service costs, and decrease customer churn.

Trying Too Hard

According to conventional wisdom, customers are more loyal to firms that go above and beyond. But our research shows that exceeding their expectations during service interactions (for example, by offering a refund, a free product, or a free service such as expedited shipping) makes customers only marginally more loyal than simply meeting their needs.

For leaders who cut their teeth in the service department, this is an alarming finding. What contact center doesn’t have a wall plastered with letters and e-mails from customers praising the extra work that service reps went to on their behalf? Indeed, 89 of the 100 customer service heads we surveyed said that their main strategy is to exceed expectations. But despite these Herculean—and costly—efforts, 84% of customers told us that their expectations had not been exceeded during their most recent interaction.

One reason for the focus on exceeding expectations is that fully 80% of customer service organizations use customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores as the primary metric for gauging the customer’s experience. And managers often assume that the more satisfied customers are, the more loyal they will be. But, like others before us (most notably Fred Reichheld), we find little relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. Twenty percent of the “satisfied” customers in our study said they intended to leave the company in question; 28% of the “dissatisfied” customers intended to stay.

The picture gets bleaker still. Although customer service can do little to increase loyalty, it can (and typically does) do a great deal to undermine it. Customers are four times more likely to leave a service interaction disloyal than loyal.

Another way to think about the sources of customer loyalty is to imagine two pies—one containing things that drive loyalty and the other containing things that drive disloyalty. The loyalty pie consists largely of slices such as product quality and brand; the slice for service is quite small. But service accounts for most of the disloyalty pie. We buy from a company because it delivers quality products, great value, or a compelling brand. We leave one, more often than not, because it fails to deliver on customer service.

Make It Easy

Let’s return to the key implication of our research: When it comes to service, companies create loyal customers primarily by helping them solve their problems quickly and easily. Armed with this understanding, we can fundamentally change the emphasis of customer service interactions. Framing the service challenge in terms of making it easy for the customer can be highly illuminating, even liberating, especially for companies that have been struggling to delight. Telling frontline reps to exceed customers’ expectations is apt to yield confusion, wasted time and effort, and costly giveaways. Telling them to “make it easy” gives them a solid foundation for action.

Telling reps to exceed customers’ expectations is apt to yield confusion, wasted time and effort, and costly giveaways.

What exactly does “make it easy” mean? Simply: Remove obstacles. We identified several recurring complaints about service interactions, including three that focus specifically on customer effort. Customers resent having to contact the company repeatedly (or be transferred) to get an issue resolved, having to repeat information, and having to switch from one service channel to another (for instance, needing to call after trying unsuccessfully to solve a problem through the website). Well over half the customers we surveyed reported encountering difficulties of this sort. Companies can reduce these types of effort and measure the effects with a new metric, the Customer Effort Score (CES), which assigns ratings from 1 to 5, with 5 representing very high effort. (For details, see the sidebar “Introducing the Customer Effort Score.”)

Introducing the Customer Effort Score

We evaluated the predictive power of three metrics—customer satisfaction (CSAT), the Net Promoter Score (NPS), and a new metric we developed, the Customer Effort Score (CES)—on customer loyalty, defined as customers’ intention to keep doing business with the company, increase the amount they spend, or spread positive (and not negative) word of mouth. Not surprisingly, CSAT was a poor predictor. NPS proved better (and has been shown to be a powerful gauge at the company level). CES outperformed both in customer service interactions.

CES is measured by asking a single question: “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?” It is scored on a scale from 1 (very low effort) to 5 (very high effort). Customer service organizations can use CES, along with operational measurements of such things as repeat calls, transfers, and channel switching, to conduct an “effort audit” and improve areas where customers are expending undue energy. Many of the companies we work with use CES to intervene with customers at risk of defecting.

We found the predictive power of CES to be strong indeed. Of the customers who reported low effort, 94% expressed an intention to repurchase, and 88% said they would increase their spending. Only 1% said they would speak negatively about the company. Conversely, 81% of the customers who had a hard time solving their problems reported an intention to spread negative word of mouth.

We believe that the superior performance of CES in the service environment derives from two factors: its ability to capture customer impressions at the transactional level (as opposed to NPS, which captures more-holistic impressions of a company) and its ability to capture negative experiences as well as positive ones.

A related diagnostic tool, the Customer Effort Audit, can be downloaded at http://www.executiveboard.com/salesandmarketing/CCC-CustomerEffortAudit.html.

During our study, we saw many companies that had successfully implemented low-customer-effort approaches to service. Following are five of the tactics they used—tactics that every company should adopt.

1. Don’t just resolve the current issue—head off the next one.

By far the biggest cause of excessive customer effort is the need to call back. Many companies believe they’re performing well in this regard, because they have strong first-contact-resolution (FCR) scores. (See the sidebar “What Should You Measure?”) However, 22% of repeat calls involve downstream issues related to the problem that prompted the original call, even if that problem itself was adequately addressed the first time around. Although companies are well equipped to anticipate and “forward-resolve” these issues, they rarely do so, generally because they’re overly focused on managing call time. They need to realize that customers gauge the effort they expend not just in terms of how an individual call is handled but also according to how the company manages evolving service events, such as taking out a mortgage or setting up cable service, that typically require several calls.

What Should You Measure?

The number one cause of undue effort for customers interacting with contact ...

Bell Canada met this challenge by mining its customer interaction data to understand the relationships among various customer issues. Using what it learned about “event clusters,” Bell began training its reps not only to resolve the customer’s primary issue but also to anticipate and address common downstream issues. For instance, a high percentage of customers who ordered a particular feature called back for instructions on using it. The company’s service reps now give a quick tutorial to customers about key aspects of the feature before hanging up. This sort of forward resolution enabled Bell to reduce its “calls per event” by 16% and its customer churn by 6%. For complex downstream issues that would take excessive time to address in the initial call, the company sends follow-up e-mails—for example, explaining how to interpret the first billing statement. Bell Canada is currently weaving this issue-prediction approach into the call-routing experience for the customer.

Fidelity uses a similar concept on its self-service website, offering “suggested next steps” to customers executing certain transactions. Often customers who change their address online call later to order new checks or ask about homeowners’ or renters’ insurance; therefore, Fidelity directs them to these topics before they leave the site. Twenty-five percent of all self-service transactions on Fidelity’s website are now generated by similar “next issue” prompts, and calls per household have dropped by 5% since the policy began.

2. Arm reps to address the emotional side of customer interactions.

Twenty-four percent (24%) of the repeat calls in our study stemmed from emotional disconnects between customers and reps—situations in which, for instance, the customer didn’t trust the rep’s information or didn’t like the answer given and had the impression that the rep was just hiding behind general company policy. With some basic instruction, reps can eliminate many interpersonal issues and thereby reduce repeat calls.

One UK-based mortgage company teaches its reps how to listen for clues to a customer’s personality type. They quickly assess whether they are talking to a “controller,” a “thinker,” a “feeler,” or an “entertainer,” and tailor their responses accordingly, offering the customer the balance of detail and speed appropriate for the personality type diagnosed. This strategy has reduced repeat calls by a remarkable 40%.

One company teaches its reps how to listen for clues to a customer’s personality type and tailor their responses accordingly.

The lighting company Osram Sylvania sifts through its call transcripts to pinpoint words that tend to trigger negative reactions and drive repeat calls—words like “can’t,” “won’t,” and “don’t”—and coaches its reps on alternate phrasing. Instead of saying “We don’t have that item in stock,” a rep might explain, “We’ll have stock availability for that item in two weeks.” Through such simple changes in language, Osram Sylvania has lowered its Customer Effort Score from 2.8 to 2.2—18.5% below the average we see for B2B companies.

LoyaltyOne, the operator of the AIR MILES reward program, teaches reps to probe for information they can use to better position potentially disappointing outcomes. A rep dealing with a customer who wants to redeem miles for an unavailable flight might learn that the caller is traveling to an important business meeting and use this fact to put a positive spin on the need to book a different flight. The rep might say, “It sounds like this is something you can’t be late for. The Monday morning flight isn’t available, but with potential delays, you’d be cutting it close anyway. I’d recommend a Sunday evening flight so that you don’t risk missing your meeting.” This strategy has resulted in an 11% decrease in repeat contacts.

3. Minimize channel switching by increasing self-service channel “stickiness.”

Many companies ask, “How can we get our customers to go to our self-service website?” Our research shows that in fact many customers have already been there: Fifty-seven percent of inbound calls came from customers who went to the website first. Despite their desire to have customers turn to the web, companies tend to resist making improvements to their sites, assuming that only heavy spending and technology upgrades will induce customers to stay there. (And even when costly upgrades are made, they often prove counterproductive, because companies tend to add complicated and confusing features in an attempt to keep up with their competitors.)

Customers may become overwhelmed by the profusion of self-service channels—interactive voice response, websites, e-mail, chat, online support communities, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and so on—and often lack the ability to make the best choice for themselves. For example, technically unsophisticated users, left to their own devices, may go to highly technical online support communities. As a result, customers may expend a lot of effort bouncing between channels, only to pick up the phone in the end.

Cisco Consumer Products now guides customers to the channel it determines will suit them best, on the basis of segment-specific hypotheses generated by the company’s customer experience team. Language on the site’s home page nudges technology gurus toward the online support community; those with less technical expertise are steered toward knowledge articles by the promise of simple step-by-step instructions. The company eliminated the e-mail option, having found that it didn’t reliably reduce customer effort. (Our research shows that 2.4 e-mails, on average, are needed to resolve an issue, compared with 1.7 calls.) When Cisco Consumer Products began this program, in 2006, only 30% of its customer contacts were handled through self-service; the figure today is 84%, and the volume of calls has dropped accordingly.

Travelocity reduced customer effort just by improving the help section of its website. It had learned that many customers who sought solutions there were stymied and resorted to the phone. By eliminating jargon, simplifying the layout, and otherwise improving readability, the company doubled the use of its “top searches” and decreased calls by 5%.

4. Use feedback from disgruntled or struggling customers to reduce customer effort.

Many companies conduct postcall surveys to measure internal performance; however, they may neglect to use the data they collect to learn from unhappy customers. But consider National Australia Group’s approach. The company has frontline reps specifically trained to call customers who have given it low marks. The reps focus first on resolving the customers’ issues, but they also collect feedback that informs service improvements. The company’s issue-resolution rate has risen by 31%.

Such learning and intervention isn’t limited to the phone channel. Some companies monitor online behavior in order to identify customers who are struggling. EarthLink has a dedicated team of reps who step in as needed with clients on its self-service website—for example, by initiating a chat with a customer who has spent more than 90 seconds in the knowledge center or clicked on the “Contact Us” link. This program has reduced calls by 8%.

5. Empower the front line to deliver a low-effort experience.

Incentive systems that value speed over quality may pose the single greatest barrier to reducing customer effort. Most customer service organizations still emphasize productivity metrics such as average handle time when assessing rep performance. They would be better off removing the productivity “governors” that get in the way of making the customer’s experience easy.

An Australian telecommunications provider eliminated all productivity metrics from its frontline reps’ performance scorecards. Although handle time increased slightly, repeat calls fell by 58%. Today the company evaluates its reps solely on the basis off short, direct interviews with customers, essentially asking them if the service they received met their needs.

Freed to focus on reducing customer effort, frontline reps can easily pick low-hanging fruit. Ameriprise Financial, for example, asks its customer service reps to capture every instance in which they are forced to tell a customer no. While auditing the “no’s,” the company found many legacy policies that had been outmoded by regulatory changes or system or process improvements. During its first year of “capturing the no’s,” Ameriprise modified or eliminated 26 policies. It has since expanded the program by asking frontline reps to come up with other process efficiencies, generating $1.2 million in savings as a result.

Some companies have gone even further, making low customer effort the cornerstone of their service value proposition and branding. South Africa’s Nedbank, for instance, instituted an “AskOnce” promise, which guarantees that the rep who picks up the phone will own the customer’s issue from start to finish.

The immediate mission is clear: Corporate leaders must focus their service organizations on mitigating disloyalty by reducing customer effort. But service managers fretting about how to reengineer their contact centers—departments built on a foundation of delighting the customer—should consider this: A massive shift is under way in terms of customers’ service preferences. Although most companies believe that customers overwhelmingly prefer live phone service to self-service, our most recent data show that customers are, in fact, indifferent. This is an important tipping point and probably presages the end of phone-based service as the primary channel for customer service interactions. For enterprising service managers, it presents an opportunity to rebuild their organizations around self-service and, in the process, to put reducing customer effort firmly at the core, where it belongs